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Oct 21, 2025 | Blogs, Food / Beverage | 0 comments
Read time: 6 minutes
Writers block, common-placing and pumpkin spice (analysis)
My task this week – beside the normal day job – was to write a blog. Spices and mass spec, I had 4 days. Ever heard of writer’s block?
Beside putting it off for two days I turned towards stationary scribbling and eventually social media for ideas. It’s autumn – social media is filled with falling leaves, reading nooks, writers’ aesthetics, libraries, vintage notebooks, literary quotes, warm drinks, and quiet reflection. And guess what it is often pictured with at this time of year? A pumpkin spice latte.
Thanks to Starbucks, who launched the pumpkin spice latte in 2003 (yes, over 20 years ago), the spice mixture became a global phenomenon, loved and disliked at the same time.
Pumpkin spice has a surprisingly rich history that blends culinary tradition, marketing, and seasonal nostalgia – let’s take a more detailed look.
So what’s in it?
The spices commonly found in “pumpkin spice” are cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Another ingredient is allspice. I never investigated what allspice is, and assumed it was a spice blend, but it turns out it isn’t.
Allspice is actually a single spice made from the dried berries of the Pimenta dioica plant. Native to the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America its main compound is eugenol, which is also found in cloves, gives allspice its warm, aromatic flavour.
All these spices have been used for their warmth and preservative qualities in different parts of the world for centuries, often used in autumn and winter dishes. But where did the pumpkin pie trend come from?
The pumpkin pie tradition in America
In the 18th–19th century, pumpkin pie became a staple in American cuisine, especially around Thanksgiving. Recipes from early American cookbooks often included the same spice blend we now associate with “pumpkin spice.”
A product called Libby’s Canned Pumpkin (1929) helped standardize pumpkin pie recipes, and by the 1950s, Libby’s was printing a version on their labels that used that familiar mix of spices.
Around that time, the term “pumpkin spice” began appearing in recipes and spice blends, mostly referring to the mix used in pumpkin pie, and McCormick was one of the first companies to sell a pre-mixed “Pumpkin Pie Spice” blend.
Fast forward, an international coffee chain picked it up and here we are 20 years later with writers from all genres who are looking for inspiration online or in cafes and being bombarded with pumpkin spice recipes left right and centre.
The drink’s success inspired pumpkin spice-flavoured cereals, candles, cookies, beers, and even dog treats. And where there is a big market, there is usually a big opportunity for fraud.
Spice fraud and health risks – lets break pumpkin spice down
Food fraud globally is costing $10–$40 billion annually. In an EU survey from a few years ago (2019–2021), out of about 2000 spice samples, 17% showed signs of adulteration. In the cinnamon-specific survey (2024–2025) from the same source a study of 104 cinnamon samples ‘66.3% […] either did not fulfil quality criteria set by international standards, were not compliant with European food safety legislation, were suspicious of fraud, or could be toxic for children due to a high content of coumarin.’ Let’s look a little closer and break it down by ingredient.
Cinnamon
While the health risks of substituting Ceylon cinnamon with Cassia—due to its high coumarin content—are well known, a recent study found that this isn’t the main reason cinnamon fails EU safety standards. More concerning are toxic adulterants like lead-based dyes, flavoured oils, and brick dust, which are still detected in traded cinnamon. A study from South India confirmed ongoing adulteration, with samples showing high levels of coumarin and cinnamaldehyde from C. cassia bark.
Clove
Adulterants for clove are limited and mostly seen are so-called exhausted cloves that were already distilled for oil and are dried and sold as fresh. Another popular adulteration includes clove stems or wood powder used to bulk up ground clove. Besides reduced potency, the potential contamination with mold or mycotoxins is the major health risk here.
Allspice
Allspice has been found to be substituted with pimento seeds mixed with other dried berries; wood powder or synthetic flavouring agents were added to mimic eugenol aroma. Besides the risk of loss of medicinal properties, a possible exposure to unknown plant toxins is considered the main risk factor for this ingredient of pumpkin spice.
Ginger
You probably wouldn’t think to find powdered starch, soapstone, or chalk in your ground ginger powder, but all these things have been identified by fellow food scientists to increase the weight of traded ginger. The main concerns for ginger are toxic alkaloids and synthetic dyes, to enhance colour, with Sudan dyes as one of the most famous groups being classed as carcinogenic. That is nasty news for our autumnal spiced dishes. But we are not without defence.
While the number of samples isn’t disclosed, the USDA’s increased import inspections and FDA’s spice risk assessments suggest thousands of samples are tested annually. France reported a 40% annual increase in ethnic spice sales, which likely correlates with increased testing. China is a major spice exporter, with shipments reaching 928K tons in 2024, led by ginger and pimenta pepper. So, with a solid growing demand in Europe and the US, around 6% CAGR, we can estimate a ramp-up in testing to ensure quality. But how exactly is it done?
Let’s jump into the lab
Just as there are many ways to change spices to make a profit, there are also many analytical techniques to detect these adulterations. Mass spectrometry (MS) is a versatile tool to make our autumn drinks safer, and at SCIEX, we have been working on the topic of food and spice adulteration for many years.
In collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, we developed a rapid LC-MS/MS method to detect Aconitum alkaloids – highly toxic compounds found in adulterated spices, especially in sand ginger. Toxins detected were aconitine, hypaconitine, mesaconitine, benzoylaconine, benzoylmesaconine, and yunaconitine with detection limits in the sub-to-low nanogram per gram (ng/g) levels in sand ginger, ground ginger, and five-spice powder.
While this study focuses on toxic alkaloids, the same LC-MS/MS platform is applicable for:
Beside coumarin toxicity from cinnamon, Sudan dyes are linked to other health threats, and we have not yet spoken about an unspecific adulterant that can be found in all ground spices – peanut husks, which pose a significant and acute risk for people with peanut allergy.
Undeclared peanut protein can be present in powdered spices. One technology to detect peanut and other allergens in very small amounts is called Scout-triggered MRM, which allows a trigger of quantitative MRM only when relevant signals are detected. For busy labs, this reduces data complexity and processing time.
Regarding illegal dyes, the Official Food Control Authority of the Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, has developed a comprehensive screening method for food colours and illegal dyes in spices. The screening focuses on 98 food colours and dyes, including Sudan I–IV, Para Red, and other azo dyes and covers both lipophilic illegal dyes and hydrophilic artificial colours.
With spices still gaining high prices on the market there is a significant effort in the food testing industry to keep our spice-shelves, pumpkin spice containing or not, safe for consumers.
My personal tip for buying spices is to avoid ground powders and grind them yourself. Some places in the world like Indonesia and India, have not adopted pre-made spice mixtures as heavily as Europe and the Americas and still grind their spices at home. Traditional households and regional cuisines in China, like Sichuan or Cantonese, still emphasize fresh grinding, especially for festive dishes. There is great wisdom in that – especially from a food safety angle.
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